PREMA Racing’s Oliver Bearman has had his P2-worthy F2 Quali lap time reinstated at Imola.
The Brit originally posted a time of 1:27.111 at the end of the Quali session, but as he reached the chequered flag, it was deleted for track limit violations. He had also received the black and white flag during the session.
However, an hour after the race, Bearman was present at the drivers’ press conference, having had his F2 quali lap reinstated. He will now start in P2 on Sunday.
Bearman stated he’s relieved to be back on the front row, and also raised concern about whether track limits should be so heavily penalised at every track;
“I wasn’t looking forward to starting from the back rows for another weekend, because so far at two of them I’ve started at the back, so it was looking like a long weekend and I’m glad that the lap got reinstated.
“It’s a bit of a shock because, first of all, from where we’re sitting, we cannot see the difference between, you know, being on the red line and being in, you know, two millimetres over. In a track like this where you know, if you were two millimetres over, it feels like if you’re out of track limits, you’re in the gravel and of course, that’s not an advantage”.
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Bearman will start on the front row beside Gabriel Bortoleto on Sunday for the Feature Race.